UI student slumps during exam, dies after “doctors failed to attend to him on time”

Pelewura Bolaji, a Political Science student at the University of Ibadan slumped while preparing to go into the examination hall.

His friends hurriedly carried him to a hospital not too far away from the school. One of them told Newsroom he is regretting that decision.

“Maybe we should not have taken him to Ikeja General Hospital,” the friend, who does not want to be named, said.

Bolaji, 29, was a year one student of the University of Ibadan (UI). Being a part-time student, he received his lectures at a satellite campus of the school based in Ikeja area of Lagos State.

“We just finished writing a paper on Friday morning,” Bolaji’s friend told Newsroom.

“We were preparing to seat an afternoon examination when someone called me to say Bolaji had collapsed where he was reading. It was around 2:15 p.m.

“We immediately carried him to Ikeja General Hospital. There was no doctor to attend to us there.”

Bolaji’s friend said the hospital workers refused to attend to them despite seeing their friend appearing lifeless.

“This lasted for almost 20 minutes. But when they saw our identity cards and learned that we were students, they attended to us for fear that we may scatter the place.”

“Their doctors were not even on seat. They had to go find one of them. He came in just came, checked Bolaji and pronounced him dead.”

The friend said his fellow students carried Bolaji’s body back to the campus where a certain pastor came to pray for him.

“During the prayers, we saw his body move,” he said.

“We thought he had been revived and rushed him to Lagoon hospital in Ikeja. Maybe we could have saved him if we took him there first.

“I counted fifteen people attending to him. They were going back and forth. They used all kinds of medical equipment to try to revive him, but none worked.

“When it was around 3:35 p.m., they too pronounced him dead.”

Bolaji’s body was deposited at a morgue but his parents, with whom Bolaji lived in Iwaya-Yaba area of Lagos State, were not immediately informed about his passing.

“We told his parents about the incident on Saturday morning,” Bolaji’s friend said.

Newsroom gathered that Bolaji will not be buried until an autopsy his conducted on his body to find out the cause of his death. The autopsy is due for Monday.

It was also gathered that UI sent representatives to the deceased’s family, and may take financial responsibility for his burial.

“Like the rest of us, he has life insurance cover with the school and I believe they will do all that is expected of them,” Bolaji’s friend said.

R.I.P. Pelewura Bolaji.

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